StarCraft: A National Pastime
How Korea Stands to Shape Blizzard Entertainment's Future
When it debuted, StarCraft was not the first, but is far and away the best-known Real-time Strategy (RTS) game to date. With the anticipated release of its sequel, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, South Koreans have a great deal of influence on how Wings of Liberty will take shape.
Building upon the success of its previous venture, the Warcraft series, Blizzard took to deep space with an apocalyptic vision of the human race as it encountered two other distinct races, each with its own set of units and off-setting capabilities. Expanded use of Blizzard’s internet-based multiplayer service, Battle.net, set the stage for online gaming to become the national pastime for a generation with StarCraft at the forefront.
Enter the PC Bang
While an enormous commercial success in the U. S. and Europe, it was in South Korea that Blizzard’s space-age quest truly took hold. With wide-spread access to internet connections via “PC bangs,” or internet cafes, in the late 1990s, young Koreans began to gather at computer banks to compete. In October of 2000, the South Korean capital of Seoul hosted the World Cyber Game Challenge where hundreds gathered to compete for cash prizes.
Since then, StarCraft has become an integral part of Korean society. The best of the best become national heroes, facing off on enormous screens in front of crowds of screaming fans. Even daily TV programming is inundated with images and references to the game. GomTV, a broadcast group founded by the Gretech Corporation in 1999, features several channels dedicated to StarCraft, WarCraft and other popular titles. The best of the best receive advertising contracts and marketing deals akin to those reserved for professional football, baseball and basketball players in the U.S.
StarCraft Champions Become Korean Rock Stars
With that kind of star power, it isn’t difficult to understand why Koreans have a great deal of bearing on the much-anticipated (and much-delayed) sequel. The typical benchmark for a successful game sequel in the American market is a game-changing new feature; the Madden football franchise alters game play and changes functionality with each successive release. When rumors spread of a possible fourth race in StarCraft 2, Koreans howled in unison that it would be a franchise-killing departure from the original.
There is truth in that view. Blizzard, with Nihilistic Software, planned to introduce a first person shooter entitled StarCraft: Ghost, based on an elite stealth unit from the original by the same name. Despite other problems, the game was such a departure from the initial customer base that the game was indefinitely postponed.
Gameplay to Remain the Same
In the first game, StarCraft and all of its units and landscapes were two-dimensional, static animations. A fear among Korean gamers was that, when Blizzard and company updated the graphics engine, StarCraft would take on the stylistic look and feel of WarCraft III, which many disliked. Blizzard has since dispelled that fear, citing that the graphics engine in WarCraft III was a deliberate attempt, along with fundamental changes in game play, to differentiate the two franchises. Screenshots from the upcoming release show the familiar artistic flourishes from the original as they would appear in 3D rendering.
All in all, it would appear that Blizzard has gone out of its way to appease the Korean audience. For fans of the original, American, Korean and otherwise, the essence of the game is touted to remain that same while incorporating updated game play features, such as no limit on the number of units controllable (originally limited to 12), smarter artificial intelligence, destructible landscape features and elevation-oriented fog of war.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
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Epic battles play out over lush environments
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